Gifts: Glass Walkers
The Glass Walkers Gifts Spirits in service to or allied with a tribe's totem teach Tribal Gifts. Some tribes' Gifts haven't changed in centuries, while others (such as the Glass Walkers) regularly reinvent their relationship with the spirits. Learning a Gift from another tribe usually requires the Garou to be on good terms with at least one member of the tribe (generally a packmate) who can summon the appropriate spirit. Even then, the Garou must convince the spirit she is worthy of its blessings, and that she won't turn them against its tribal allies. Some Garou are extremely touchy about outsiders learning their tribal blessings, while others believe the practice strengthens the Garou Nation as a whole in its war against the Wyrm. Many Glass Walker Gifts involve Weaver-spirits of one type or another. This association grants the Glass Walkers great versatility and an unparalleled rapport with modern technology; hopefully, it's enough to make up for the lack of respect with which other tribes view their pacts. Rank 1 Control Simple Machine The Garou may command the spirits of the simplest machines, causing levers to flip, doors to unbolt, pulleys to roll, and so on. Any technological spirit can teach this Gift. System: The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Crafts (difficulty 7). The Garou's control lasts until the end of the scene. Diagnostics The Glass Walker can tell at a glance what is wrong with a machine. He can then enlist the aid of the machine's spirit in repairing it. Any technological spirit can teach this Gift. System: The character automatically succeeds at all attempts to diagnose a problem with broken technological devices. The player spends one point of Gnosis as the Garou mentally convinces the spirit of a broken device to aid her in fixing it. The time required to fix the device is halved, as are the number of successes needed to repair it. Persuasion This Gift imbues a homid'’s words with intrinsic credibility and conviction, causing them to ring true to the ear and lay heavy on the heart. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difficulty 7). Success lowers the difficulty of all social rolls by one for the rest of the scene, and allows successful rolls to have uncommonly strong impact (such as changing long-held political views, or causing an addict to seriously reconsider the course of his life). Plug and Play All of the Weaver's works are connected through the same web, the same song. The Glass Walkers exploit this truth to draw more power from the modern profusion of technology, making their devices compatible with almost everything. A Net Spider teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one Willpower point. For the next day, any computer the Glass Walker uses -- no matter how simple -- becomes fully compatible with any other digital device, regardless of obstacles such as different operating systems, lack of physically compatible access ports, or even the complete absence of any means of receiving or interpreting a wireless signal. Generally, Glass Walkers use this Gift to turn their smart phones into omni-compatible access keys to computer networks, security feeds, and even car GPS systems. Trick Shot This Gift allows the Garou to execute brilliant feats of sharpshooting, such as shooting a weapon from an opponent's hand or firing down the barrel of an enemy's gun. The Garou cannot use this Gift to harm an opponent directly, however, and can use Trick Shot only with rifles or pistols. Air-spirits teach this Gift. System: As a permanent enhancement, the player adds his character's permanent Glory rating to his dice pool when performing a really outlandish shooting trick. Again, the Gift does not allow direct damage to targets ("I'll shoot the armored fomor through the eye!"), but can be used to injure opponents indirectly ("I'll shoot out the blacked-out window behind the vampire so the sunlight hits him!"). Rank 2 Cybersenses The Garou may exchange his natural senses for those of machines, witnessing the world in ways more traditional werewolves could never imagine. He might exchange normal hearing for radar, or ordinary sight for infrared or UV vision. Any technological spirit can teach this Gift. System: The player spends one Gnosis point per sense affected. This Gift lasts for one scene. Hands Full of Thunder Many Glass Walkers regard the gun as the ultimate sign of the power of the modern age, and make pacts with the spirits to assure that their firearms do not become useless, primitive clubs in the midst of battle. A technological spirit or war-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends a point of Gnosis. For the rest of the scene, any gun the Glass Walker fires won't run out of ammunition, so long as it had ammo to begin with. Burst restrictions are still recommended with automatic weapons to keep the gun from overheating and jamming. Jam Technology With a slight gesture, the werewolf unbalances the Wyld and Weaver energies within technological devices, either suffusing them with destructive chaos or amplifying their inherent stasis until they refuse to do anything at all. Computers crash, guns jam, cars stall, and even the simplest of shaped objects refuse to function. A gremlin -- a type of Wyld-spirit that enjoys breaking things -- teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one Gnosis point, rolls (Manipulation + Crafts) and chooses the level of complexity she intends to jam. All technological devices (i.e. any devices shaped from fabricated materials like metal or plastic) of that complexity within 50 feet (15 m) cease to function for two turns per success. The devices remain unchanged, but inert -- knives won't cut, gunpowder won't ignite, gears won't turn, and so on. The difficulty of the roll is based on the following chart: ' '''Power Surge By speaking with electricity spirits, the Garou causes a blackout over a widespread area. An electricity elemental teaches this Gift. ''System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Wits + Science (difficulty 7). The number of successes determines how large of an area is blacked out. One success would black out a single room, while five would cut the power to a whole neighborhood. Steel Fur Focusing on his own being, the Glass Walker wraps himself in spiritual steel, turning his fur into hardened metal. Metal or earth elementals teach this Gift. System: The player spends one Willpower point and rolls Stamina + Science (difficulty 7). Each success adds one die to the Garou's soak pool for the rest of the scene. While this Gift is active, the Garou suffers +1 difficulty to all Dexterity rolls, and any Social rolls not involving other Glass Walkers. This Gift only functions in Crinos, Hispo, and Lupus forms. Rank 3 Control Complex Machine Similar to Control Simple Machine, the Glass Walker may now converse with and command the spirits of electronic devices such as computers, smart phones, and cars. A Net-Spider teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Science or Computer. The Storyteller sets the difficulty based on how complex the machine is (8 for a standard laptop). The Garou's control lasts for one scene. Electroshock The Glass Walkers are the tribe of glass, steel, and electricity. This last element can be used to directly damage opponents that the Glass Walker can either touch, or who are touching a conductive material such as metal or water. An electricity-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends a number of Rage points. Each point of Rage spent inflicts two levels of aggravated wounds on the Glass Walker's opponents. These levels of damage may be divided among as many opponents as the number of Rage points invested in this Gift. As usual, the character cannot spend more Rage than half of his permanent rating in one turn. Elemental Favor By begging, threatening or cajoling an urban elemental, a werewolf can convince the spirit to do her a favor such as manipulating or even destroying its earthly shell. Thus, a glass sheet might explode at the Garou's foes, an unlocked door might refuse to open, or a car's brakes might fail. An urban elemental teaches this Gift. System: The player rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difficulty 7). The Storyteller determines the precise effects. Intrusion It's impossible to keep a cockroach out of a house, and equally impossible to keep out a Glass Walker with this Gift. Once activated, this Gift allows the Glass Walker to open any barrier presented to her: doors unlock at her approach, and padlocks fall open with no explanation. A cockroach-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one point of Gnosis and rolls Gnosis (difficulty 7). For exactly one minute afterward, all forms of locks and barriers allow her passage, from computerized vault locks to barricades of 2x4s nailed up across doors. Mystically sealed barriers still require a roll to bypass, but every success on the initial Gnosis roll adds one automatic success to such attempts. Barriers disabled by this Gift do not automatically re-seal themselves. Rank 4 Attunement The werewolf may commune with the spirits of a city or town and gain information about the area from them, including a rough population estimate, enclaves of Garou or other beings, and any secret tunnels. This Gift doesn't function in the wilderness, since the Bone Gnawers have lost the knack for conversing with such spirits easily. A cockroach-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one point of Gnosis and rolls Perception + Streetwise (difficulty 6). The amount and accuracy of the information depend on the number of successes rolled. Doppleganger The Garou may take the exact likeness of any other human, wolf, or Garou. A chameleon-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Performance (difficulty 8). Traits aren't duplicated, but everything else, including voice, posture, and scent, are identical. The effects last for one day per success (though the Garou may end them at will). Signal Rider From the telegraph to the cell phone, the Glass Walkers have always kept up good relations with spirits of cutting-edge communication. This Gift allows the Garou to open a moon bridge that rides the back of a telephone signal, transporting her instantly to the location of whoever is on the other end of the line. A Pattern Spider teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one Willpower and one Gnosis to open the moon bridge. The Garou must have a connection between a telephone at her location and one at the target destination to use this Gift, although it doesn't discriminate between landlines or cell phones -- some werewolves have even reported success in riding the back of online conferencing software, although doing so successfully requires a Wits + Computers roll (difficulty 7). Signal Rider can take the character no more than (Gnosis x 5) miles (or 8 km per Gnosis dot) -- if the other end of the line isn't within that range, the Gift fails. Tech Speak This Gift allows the Glass Walker to contact others through any technological device. The Garou speaks to a Pattern Spider in or near a technological device and tells them the message to be delivered and whom it should be delivered to. The Pattern Spider then finds the receiver and uses any communications technology near them to deliver the message: Phones yell it out (without picking up the handset or needing to be turned on), electronic billboards display it, and computer printers print it out as text. If no communications technology is present, any other technology will activate, though no message will be imparted. If no technology whatsoever is present near the receiver, the Gift fails. A Pattern Spider teaches this Gift. System: The player spends a Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Science. The difficulty depends on the distance the message needs to be sent: The next room is difficulty 4, the same building 5, one block away 6, ten miles (16 km) away 7, a time-zone away 8. Beyond that is difficulty 9. The more successes achieved, the longer the message can be. A single success will only allow one word to be sent; five would allow unlimited length. Rank 5 Chaos Mechanics Werewolves pulse with the Wyld's energy, but all creatures with form and nature have something of the Weaver in them as well. Upon learning this Gift, the Glass Walker reconciles these aspects of his being, enabling him to summon primal energy and mystical form at the same time. Luna, who balances mercurial chaos into an orderly cycle of phases, sends the most powerful of her Lunes to teach this Gift. System: A werewolf with this Gift may use Rage and Gnosis in the same turn with no penalty. This Gift's effects are permanent. Summon Net-Spider The Garou carries a great technological blessing, granting him an intuitive understanding of the ways of computers; additionally, he can summon a Net-Spider -- a Weaver spirit that gives its summoner near-absolute control over any computer system. The Spider can disrupt, erase, or destroy whatever system it is sent into. (The exact effects are left to the Storyteller, but are typically destructive.) An avatar of Cockroach teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Computer (difficulty 8). If successful, the Net-Spider appears and heeds the Garou's commands. In addition to the destructive power of the summoned spirit, this Gift allows the Garou to permanently halve the difficulty of all rolls to use, build, or hack computers.